The Purpose of Decaffeinated Green Tea

Is Decaffeinated Green Tea Less Beneficial Than Regular Green Tea?

The basic purpose of decaffeinated green tea is to provide green tea lovers with the antioxidants and other health benefits of green tea, without all of the caffeine. Many people worry that because it is decaffeinated green tea and not regular green tea, that they will actually not be receiving the same amount of beneficial qualities and components that are found in the tea, however this is absolutely not true. In fact, it has been proven that decaffeinated green tea does have the exact same amount of EGCG as regular green tea, and if you want to be sure, you can check the ingredients listing on the product before you buy it.

There are actually two types of decaffeinating methods that are used for such products as decaffeinated green tea; one of which uses ethyl acetate solvent, and that retains only 30% of the healthy and beneficial polyphenols. The other is considered as being the more natural process, which uses only water and carbon dioxide. There is actually even a way that green tea can be decaffeinated by the drinker, which is in fact used quite often, considering the amount of people that do not want caffeine in their tea.

A cup of regular green tea contains anywhere from 15-30mg of caffeine. Although the caffeine is not appreciated by some, it is actually necessary in green tea as it provides bitterness. Therefore, given the amount of caffeine that one cup of green tea contains, this mere one cup would be enough to produce the stimulant effects that are typically associated with caffeine, such as affects to the central nervous system.

Removing caffeine naturally and by yourself is possible, by completing a very simple process. All you have to do is steep the tea for about 45 seconds in hot water, then pour off the liquid. After this, you add more hot water and then pour off the liquid for a second time.

Finally, you add more hot water and steep as you would normally for a cup of tea; now up to 80% of the caffeine that was in the tea has been released in the first infusion of water, so you really only have minimal amounts of that caffeine the second time through. The decaffeinating of your tea has many positive aspects, such as the fact that you will not feel any of the nervous or fidgety affects that caffeine is known to produce.